Mayweather-Mosley pencilled in for May 1st

Floyd Mayweather seems to be skipping the March 13 head to head battle with Manny Pacquiao and will instead fight Shane Mosley in May. There is an obstacle before this fight can be made (well, with the same hype around it anyway).  Mosley has a tough task ahead of him in Andre Berto next weekend. It will be Mosley’s first fight in over a year since the destruction of Antonio Margarito and Berto definately has the tools to cause an upset should Mosley come in rusty. Still, Mayweather has been known to take on the name opponent even if they have lost their last fight, I mean everyone remembers the Judah fight back in 2006 when Mayweather fought Judah anyway after he lost his mandatory defence against Carlos Baldomir. Mosley lives a pretty clean lifestyle though and he should get past Berto which sets up a fight that has intruiged a lot of people over the years.

Mosley is one of the few guys who can match Floyd with his hand speed, even now in his late 30s he has tremendous hand speed but he also has world class power and an iron chin. Mayweather would probably be the favourite as his defence will be a big challenge for Mosley, but I think we should get to see Mayweather’s chin tested on a few occasions in this fight. This fight, while not being on the level of the Pacquiao bout, is the next best thing and is easily the toughest fight of Mayweather’s career. If Mosley looks good against Berto and comes into the fight with some good rounds under his belt compared to the Mayweather sparring session with Juan Manuel Marquez (his only rounds since he fought Hatton back in 2007) then you could see Mosley pulling off the upset. Mosley, in my opinion, is one of the more underrated fighters of the decade and while I really wanted to see Pacquiao-Mayweather like the rest of the world, I kind of wanted to see Mosley get his crack first. This is more reason to not go for Andre Berto next weekend.

I’m Back (again)

Apologies for the lack of anything over the last few months, my personal life got in the way and I just didn’t have the motivation to write anything on here. I’m back now and will make time to do what I usually do on here. Anyway, over the last few months:

- Dynamite was awesome as usual. I particularily enjoyed the extended MAX fight in the main event between Masato and Andy Souwer. Usually these guys have trouble getting warmed up over three rounds and to see them fight over five was very special. Main Event or someone should really pick this shit up and show it down here because its an awesome show and now with Sengoku’s roster available this is going to be a yearly highlight much like Shockwave was back in the day.

- The UFC slump appears to be over with some good fights coming up. The real highlight over the recent events was BJ Penn’s schooling of Diego Sanchez. Fuck fighting Frankie Edgar, this guy should vacate and earn a third fight with GSP by fighting Matt Hughes a third time (Hughes did beat him in their last fight) and then someone like Fitch.

- Pacquiao was awesome against Cotto and it’s extremely irritable that Mayweather came up with special demands in order to make the fight, demands that Pacquiao didn’t come to terms with. Mayweather is in no position to ask for procedures outside of what is required by the NSAC and the fact that the fight fell apart because of this really pisses me off. Pacquiao is not to blame here, he’s not some 2nd rate chump sho has to dance by Mayweathers tune. He’s the draw right now with his string of impressive KO wins while Mayweather is riding the momentum of outpointing a man three weight divisions below him. Hopefully Mosley makes mince meat of Berto and then him and Mayweather get it on, that’ll at least give me something to look forward to in the world of boxing.

- As for Danny Green, full respect for the win and full respect for chasing Bernard Hopkins, but Holyfield and Tyson? Seriously this shows the lack of boxing coverage down here if they want to sell these fights to us. No one gives a shit about those two anywhere else in the world anymore. Green needs to call out Chad Dawson if he wants to prove he is the best. And one more thing, Green is not a cruiserweight despite what his ‘world title’ suggests. He’s a light heavyweight who didn’t bother losing the 5lb to make it official in his last fight who picked up a belt that not many people care about in order to try and sell the Jones fight as something other then a 40 year old has been vs a decent contender. To go even further, Green is definately not the 2nd best Cruiserweight in the world which certain Australian boxing publications would have you believe.

Pacquiao demolises Hatton

Manny Pacquiao made light work of World Junior Welterweight Champion Ricky Hatton, scoring a stunning second round knockout to end Hatton’s four year reign. Hatton was aggressive in the first minute, but once Pacquiao found his range he began to score frequently with a lightning fast lead right hook that ‘The Hitman’ had no answer for. Towards the end of the first round one of these hooks, a counter to a wild Hatton left hook, put Hatton down face first. The punch was so quick it was hard to pick up in real time and although Hatton beat the count, he was clearly hurt. A further barrage from Pacquiao put the wobbly Hatton down again at the end of the round but time ran out before Pacquiao could move in for the kill.

Hatton seemed to recover a bit between rounds but was still on rubber legs. He continued to press the fight until Pacquiao began to score at which point Hatton was backed up for maybe the first time in his career. Pacquiao’s hand speed and timing were too much for Hatton, who seemed to have adjusted to the power although he was taking plenty of shots. Then in the final moments of the 2nd round, Pacquiao lowered the boom and landed an overhand left over Hatton’s right hand right on the button knocking Hatton unconscious before he hit the canvas. The referee stopped the count early as it was clear Hatton was not going to beat the count, and he didn’t rise for another few minutes.

With the victory, Pacquiao adds the Ring 140lb Championship to his Ring 130 and 126lb Championships as well as the WBC 112lb and 135lb belts and the IBF 122lb belt. Not only does he do that, but in my opinion anyway he moves past Floyd Mayweather jnr as the best fighter of the modern era (in that, I’m saying roughly the last 20-25 years). Pacquiao’s resume is unbelievable and unlike Mayweather he’s cleaned out divisions and sought the best fighters time and time again and with the exception of Marquez, dominated all of them. With the news of Mayweather returning to fight Marquez at 143lbs (this will save me an extra post, I think Floyd is being his typical self by throwing that much money at Marquez that he has no choice but to come up the extra weight. Let’s be realistic, Marquez would still be champion at 126lbs if there was anyone for him to fight there, he’s a big name and Floyd’s using that name and making him fight at his weight class to put himself back in the picture. I’d much rather have seen him take on Cotto or Mosley, but there’s risk in those fights and the reward isn’t that great so he’s picking on the Featherweight) it’s likely that we’ll see the blockbuster between Pacquiao and Mayweather at the end of this year. Then again, Mayweather might reconsider coming back after seeing that.